Last Call: Why I Love Boston

Charles Peltz conducting in Jordan Hall in Boston, at the New England Conservatory. Photo by Andrew Hurlbut.

Charles Peltz
By Stacey Morris/EXPLORE

For the past 15 years, Charles Peltz has been a man of two cities. Because he’s the director of the Glens Falls Symphony Orchestra, Peltz and his family own a home in the small city just south of Lake George. It is in Glens Falls where he spends weekends at the farmers market, rehearsing with singers and musicians, and conducting sold-out symphony concerts that include the upcoming “English Heritage” on Nov. 2, and the annual “North Country Christmas” on Dec. 7.

The rest of his time is spent in Boston, where Peltz is a faculty member at the New England Conservatory, teaching graduate conducting and overseeing the wind ensemble. “When you decide to pursue a career, everyone reminds you there’s a narrow opportunity for livelihood,” he says. “But you don’t undertake a career in music for the money; you do it because it’s a calling.” It’s a calling that has taken him around the world, including for collaborations with Bogota’s Orquestra Nacional, and the Cross Border Orchestra of Ireland.

But it’s in Boston that the Finger Lakes native has put down permanent roots. It’s a city that Peltz says brims with both history and new life. “Boston is the seat of American history. Around every corner is an important reminder of the birth of freedom in America, and the rewards of that freedom,” he says. “Whether it’s the landmarks on the Freedom Trail, or the Italian families in the North End, or the Irish families in the south end, it’s a city about birthing freedom and having all these wonderful people come from other places to prosper in that freedom.

“I’m luckiest man in world because I live in two great cities. Glens Falls is a wonderful place with special people; it’s not just small-town folk out of central casting,” said Peltz. “And Boston is one of the most compact and interesting cities in the world.”

Best Place for…

AQUATIC HISTORYThe USS ConstitutionCharlestown Navy Yard Constitution Rd., Charlestown
(617) 426-1812ussconstitutionmuseum.org
“Its nickname is Old Ironsides,” Peltz says of the three-masted frigate named by George Washington that was built in 1795. “It was one of the first great warships of the U.S. Navy and is a fabulous, two-level tour.”

MINGLING AND OBSERVINGFaneuil Hall1 Faneuil Hall Square, Boston
(617) 242-5642nps.gov/bost/faneuil-hall-vc.htm
The site of inspirational speeches by Samuel Adams and other famous patriots, Faneuil Hall has been a marketplace and meeting site since 1742.

APPRECIATING THE ARTSThe Museum of Fine Arts465 Huntington Ave., Boston
(617) 267-9300mfa.org
Peltz says the museum is one of the city’s treasures, which includes an impressive permanent collection and traveling exhibitions such as Goya’s Order and Disorder, and Fashion Jewelry From the Silver Screen.

ITALIAN AND AMERICAN HISTORYThe North End
“The North End has traditionally been an Italian neighborhood, and it’s in the area of the USS Constitution between Charlestown and Bunker Hill,” says Peltz. It’s also the site of the Old North Church, where Paul Revere hung the famous warning lanterns. And it’s a great place for a good cannoli and espresso. “If I’m going to pay someone else to make coffee, I go to the North End, where a big copper machine makes espresso at a bar-caffe that’s been there for 100 years … then I sit back and enjoy it as I watch the world go by.”

DRINKING A PINT WITH POWERDoyle’s Cafe3484 Washington St., Jamaica Plain
(617) 524-2345doylescafeboston.com
“It’s an old Irish neighborhood bar that’s been there forever, maybe since the mid-19th century,” said Peltz. “It’s not fancy but they pull a tremendous pint. The food is good, but it’s the atmosphere that makes it unique.”

EATING SEAFOOD WITH A SOLID REPUTATIONUnion Oyster House41 Union St., Boston
(617) 227-2750unionoysterhouse.com
“When you want the most old-fashioned dining experience in Boston, you come here because it’s the nation’s oldest continually running restaurant,” says Peltz. “They have a great raw bar and the broiled scrod is excellent.”

ENJOYING THE FOREST BY THE SEAWorld’s EndMartins Lane, Hingham
(781) 740-7233thetrustees.org/places-to-visit/greater-boston/worlds-end.html
Peltz describes this out-of-the-way park as a slice of unspoiled wilderness amid the urban landscape. “It once was a farmstead where hay was cut. The houses are gone but the land was preserved by a trust for historical preservation to keep it in a semi-wild state,” he says.

ENJOYING A MOMENT OF BOSTON HISTORYThe Robert Gould Shaw MemorialBeacon and Park streets (Boston Common), Boston
(617) 742-5415nps.gov/saga/historyculture/the-shaw-memorial.htm
“This memorial is one of the great stories of Massachusetts,” says Peltz of the bronze relief sculpture by Augustus Saint-Gauden that depicts the 54th Regiment Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry as they marched down Beacon Street in 1863 led by Colonel Shaw. The regiment was one of the first official African American units during the Civil War. “It’s a very moving memorial and it reminds you of the best of Massachusetts. After having been the cradle of liberty … when that liberty was tested, Massachusetts responded not only with their own sons and daughters, [but] they also brought oppressed sons and daughters together so they could fight for themselves.”